Outreach

Newsplex

Newsplex is the college’s initiative to define and demonstrate best practices for
the future of journalism and strategic communication. Newsplex has an international
reputation as a center for the study of new media techniques.

What We Do

Newsplex offers consulting services and training programs to a worldwide client base,
generally focusing on the areas of newsroom organization and operation.

In 2014, Newsplex is conducting six seminars across Russia, four on best practices
for the use of social media and two on investigative reporting. The project is funded
by the U.S. government and follows an earlier initiative in which Newsplex created
an entire online course in Russian on convergent journalism.

Professional Training

Newsplex, created in 2002 through a partnership with what is now known as the World
Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA), has worked with some of
the leading news organizations in the world.

The Newsplex client list is a virtual who’s who of the world’s media companies, including
The Financial Times in London, The Daily Nation in Nairobi, El Tiempo in Bogota and
many more.

Strategic Communication

The same techniques and practices that are relevant to professional journalists also
are important to strategic communicators.

The Newsplex client list also includes the United Nations, NATO, the U.S. Department
of Defense and many others. In South Carolina, Newsplex has done training programs
for the South Carolina and Columbia Chambers of Commerce, the South Carolina Municipal
Association and the South Carolina Hospital Association.

Academic Programs

Newsplex is more than a professional training facility. It also leads classes on
convergent journalism for high school as well as college students.

Thanks to a grant from the Knight Foundation through the Central Carolina Community
Foundation, Newsplex oversaw an innovative initiative in which students from the University
of South Carolina and Benedict College were paired with senior citizens to produce
multi media content for a website done in conjunction with Columbia’s State newspaper.
The initiative is called BG TIME, which stands for Bridging Generations through Technology,
Information Media and Engagement. With the expiration of the grant, the website is
being maintained by South Carolina’s State Office on Aging.

Director of Newsplex

Randy Covington

Randy Covington is the director of Newsplex and a member of the faculty of the School
of Journalism and Mass Communications. He speaks worldwide on new media issues,
serving as a moderator of the 2013 World Newspaper Congress in Bangkok, co-chair of
the 2012 WAN-IFRA Middle East Conference in Dubai and a past faculty member of an
annual summer university for French journalists.